Category: Health

Uh-oh. Your child sneezing in a row could only mean one thing: the onset of a cold. A mighty cold. Or not. While every child’s illness symptoms escalate in his/her unique way, the point is that often, the occurrence of illnesses can either be mitigated or staved off entirely depending on their nutrition. In other words, what your kids eat can be the solution for a whole host of child-related maladies – right from mood swings to constipation to the management of colds, coughs or viruses. Build Immunity While protein…

Have we been ‘expiring’ perfectly good drugs? Would you spend a rupee if it saved you Rs 677? Eagerly, perhaps. The US Department of Defense has been saving billions of dollars for 30 years by continuing to use ‘expired’ medicines in its stock after testing them. Last year, the tests–part of its Shelf Life Extension Program–cost $3.1 million and saved $2.1 billion. Are drugs safe to use past their ‘expiry’ date? If they are, why do they come printed with expiry dates only 2-3 years from the date of manufacture? A recent article on ProPublica ‘That…

Depression is one of the most common ailments in India and around the world and now it has been directly linked with changing structures of the brain. According to a new study published in Scientific Reports conducted by University of Edinburgh depression could lead to changes in brain’s structure. Various alterations were found in the parts of brain known as white matter which contains fiber tracts that enabled brain cells to communicate with one another by electrical signals. White matter plays a vital role in the brain’s wiring and its…

According to a study published in BMC Nutrition, combining sweet drinks like juices or aerated drinks with a high-protein might make you fat and negatively affect energy balance. This combination may decrease the metabolic efficiency, which can further lead to fat being stored making you obese. The primary goal, according to the journal was to determine the extent to which simple addition of a small serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage to meals with different macro-nutrient compositions impacts appetite, energy metabolism and substrate oxidation. The study was conducted on 27 healthy…

Chloe Crowhurst, left, and Amber Davies smoke during a Love Island episode. Photograph: ITV The bedroom activities of Love Island’s glamorous contestants are providing many a watercooler moment in offices across the land. But their love of smoking is provoking an altogether different kind of debate. Amid growing concerns about the rise of smoking on screens and its influence on the young, the media regulator Ofcom has been asked by a leading health charity to investigate whether the show is in breach of strict codes governing lighting up on television. Action…

Before we tell you what are the fluids that can help you lose weight, here are some of the things that won’t. Say goodbye to diet drinks and soda which are filled with carbon dioxide and trigger a hunger hormone which lead to over-eating and weight gain. Instead, here’s a list of 5 drinks to incorporate in your diet: Matcha green tea can help boost memory and lose weight. *Matcha tea: This green tea from Japan is the latest health food ingredient. And among its many benefits which range from boosting memory to helping you…

Choosing the right times to eat during the day is a winning strategy when it comes to avoiding weight gain, according to a study carried out by researchers at Loma Linda University in the USA. Data gathered from 50,660 healthy adults aged over 30 revealed four factors associated with a decrease in BMI: eating only one or two meals per day; maintaining an overnight fast of up to 18 hours; eating breakfast instead of skipping it; and making breakfast or lunch the largest meal of the day. Earlier research too…

Health-care stocks have been on a tear, and with Johnson & Johnsonand United Health Group reporting earnings on Tuesday, Todd Gordon of TradingAnalysis.com sees the sector rising even higher. The health-care-tracking ETF (XLV) is already up more than 16 percent year to date, and from a technical standpoint, the XLV is forming a “pattern” that leads Gordon to believe the ETF could hit an all-time high as soon as next month. On a chart of XLV, Gordon points out that the ETF has been making a continuous “uptrend” parallel channel, and there is…

Senate Republicans introduced a revised version of their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, one that would allow insurers to once again deny coverage based on preexisting conditions, and to charge higher rates to sick people. The bill would keep most of the Affordable Care Act’s tax increases but repeal one aimed specifically at medical device manufacturers. It would deeply cut the Medicaid program, making few changes to the bill’s first draft. Even with these new changes, the general structure of the bill stays the same from…

A strange line has trickled out from Senate Republicans in the past few days: We don’t even have a health care plan. Those 145 pages of detailed legislative text? The ones that were rigorously analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office? What are you talking about? It’s a Jedi mind trick for the ages. Vox’s Sarah Kliff wrote last month about the remarkable lengths Republicans have gone to to mislead and obfuscate about their health care plans. It was no accident that Senate leadership decided to draft its bill entirely out of public view. But denying the existence of a…